Sociologists Available to Discuss President Obama’s
Support of Same-Sex Marriage

WASHINGTON, DC, May 10, 2012 — The American Sociological Association (ASA) has sociologists available to discuss the significance of President Obama’s announcement on Wednesday that he supports same-sex marriage.

Mary Bernstein is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut. The Past Chair of ASA’s Section on the Sociology of Sexualities, Bernstein has authored and edited a variety of publications on same-sex relationships including: Queer Mobilizations: LGBT Activists Confront the Law; Queer Families, Queer Politics: Challenging Culture and the State; and “Sexual Citizenship and the Pursuit of Relationship-Recognition Policies in Australia and the United States.” She is also co-editor of (Not) The Marrying Kind: The Politics of Same-Sex Marriage, which is currently in production with the University of Minnesota Press.

Amin Ghaziani is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of British Columbia. His research considers, among other things, the impact of historically changing meanings of sexuality on lesbian and gay identity; the in-migration of heterosexuals into “gay neighborhoods;” and the effects of infighting in LGBT marches on Washington. Ghaziani’s publications include: The Dividends of Dissent: How Conflict and Culture Work in Lesbian and Gay Marches on Washington and “Post-Gay Collective Identity Construction.”

Brian Powell is the James H. Rudy Professor in the Department of Sociology at Indiana University Bloomington. Powell is the lead author of the book, Counted Out: Same-Sex Relations and Americans' Definitions of Family, which moves beyond previous efforts to understand how Americans view their own families by examining the way Americans characterize the concept of family in general.

To request an interview, contact Daniel Fowler, ASA’s Media Relations and Public Affairs Officer, at (202) 527-7885 or pubinfo@asanet.org.

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About the American Sociological Association
The American Sociological Association (www.asanet.org), founded in 1905, is a non-profit membership association dedicated to serving sociologists in their work, advancing sociology as a science and profession, and promoting the contributions to and use of sociology by society.